


team work

by Siria



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Community: cliche_bingo, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-08-30
Updated: 2009-08-30
Packaged: 2017-10-03 19:04:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 946
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21239
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Siria/pseuds/Siria
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The morning after Teyla and her year-mates had turned eight, Tagan took her trading for the first time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	team work

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [cliche_bingo](http://community.livejournal.com/cliche_bingo/) for the prompt 'secrets and lies.' Thanks to [Cate](http://sheafrotherdon.livejournal.com/) for betaing.

The morning after Teyla and her year-mates had turned eight, Tagan took her trading for the first time. Teyla had been off-world with her mother three or four times before, but that had been to visit kin on Sorhtees and celebrate First Night with them. The care Tagan had taken in dressing Teyla for those trips—making sure she scrubbed behind her ears; neatly braiding and beading her hair; dressing her in her best blue tunic and trousers—was nothing compared to that which she took in getting Teyla ready for this one. Teyla was made to shine her boots with a piece of _yaluhn_ pith until they could almost cast her reflection back at her, and Tagan used a piece of curved pumice to file Teyla's nails down until they were smooth and even.

Tagan also wore her best outfit, her long, close-fitting coat of red cloth left open over it to show it off to best advantage, and Teyla didn't know if the curve of her mother's smile or the halo of tight, coppery curls that framed her face was the best part of her beauty. She reached up to take Tagan's hand as they left their camp and walked towards the Ring of the Ancestors—a journey that Teyla normally undertook in high spirits, skipping on ahead of her mother to find a good flurry of fallen leaves to jump into—trying to match her mother's even, steady pace because they were going _trading_, and like all Athosian children, Teyla had been raised from the cradle to know how important a thing that was.

In years like this one, when the rains had been too heavy to give them a good crop of tava beans and the game had not been plentiful, it was even more important. None of the grown-ups had said anything to the children of course, but Teyla could read the pinched, worried looks on their faces, the tight lines around her father's mouth that said _things are bad and might get worse_. She and Kanaan and Maeta were all old enough now to understand what that meant—even if their parents didn't think they were grown enough to trust them with the truth, or even with any responsibility larger than picking _pirkha_ berries or feeding the flock of _birbu_ birds—and they knew that striking a good trade agreement with the Genii or the Manacc or the Lobeu was even more important than usual. If they did not make an advantageous trade soon, they would either have to go hungry or see more Athosians go off-world to seek work at a hiring fair.

"Where are we going?" Teyla asked her mother.

"To Lobeu," Tagan said. "They had a good crop of _elmak_ this year, and think _birbu_ eggs are a delicacy. It's time you started to learn how trades are made."

Teyla frowned. "We don't have so many eggs collected yet this year. How can we promise the Lobeu things we don't have?"

Tagan squeezed Teyla's hand gently. "Because the word of an Emmagan is a strong thing on a dozen different worlds, Teyla-bird. We don't have the eggs now, but we will when the laying season starts—and if my word means we can take delivery of some _elmak_ before we have to hand over the eggs, I am willing to pledge my word against something less than the full truth."

Teyla bit at her lower lip for a moment, considering. "We have to lie?"

"We have to be negotiators. People who can make a trade," Tagan said, helping Teyla to scramble over a fallen tree branch that lay across their path. "We will go and speak with the Lobeu and offer terms, and they will look at us and see a mother and daughter who are strong and confident and who do not have to beg. What they think of us is their concern; how well we trade on their opinion is ours."

Teyla looked down at her shiny boots as she walked; they didn't look like shoes which belonged to someone whose biggest worry was whether she would have enough grain to feed her through the winter. "So we lie a _little_," she said as they walked out into the clearing that surrounded the Ring.

"We do what we have to for our people. That is why we trade." Tagan entered the address for Lobeu and adjusted the strap of the bag that hung over her shoulder as the Ring came alive in a burst of blue. Teyla's eyes widened as they still did every time she saw it—no matter that Maeta might tease her about her lingering awe of the Rings, the thought of following in the Ancestors' footsteps always made her feel nervous for some reason she couldn't explain.

"Okay, Mama," Teyla said, resolving to do all she could to help, "I promise to lie just a little bit. Like the time Kanaan told Aunt Martees he didn't see who had eaten the preserves but that was only because he had eaten them in the dark and she knew anyway because he had preserves on his face."

Tagan's mouth twitched into a tiny smile for a moment before evening out. "I think, Teyla-bird, that this year we'll be a team. I will talk with the Lobeu and you will listen hard to make sure we don't forget anything they can say. Do you think you can do that for me?"

"A team," Teyla said, nodding solemnly. "Yes, I think so." She'd always been good at working on a team; and she held her mother's hands as together they walked out of the world.


End file.
